


no one can ever know

by taywen



Series: Vineyard AU [2]
Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-27
Updated: 2014-08-27
Packaged: 2018-02-15 01:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2209731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taywen/pseuds/taywen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are exactly three personal effects that hint at the fact that Corvo inhabits the fifth bedroom on the second floor of the vineyard's farmhouse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	no one can ever know

**Author's Note:**

> follow up to "no one can ever follow" (I guess that means someone can follow? ok I'll show myself to the door)
> 
> I don't think this will make much sense without having read that first, but yeah

There are exactly three personal effects that hint at the fact that Corvo inhabits the fifth bedroom on the second floor of the vineyard's farmhouse.

The first and most precious is a collection of dingy, off-white sheets of paper. Individually, each leaf would look like nothing so much as scribbles in crayon. Together, hung carefully at odd angles and overlapping, they form a childish but recognizable rendition of the mask staring out of Dunwall's wanted posters. Some of the sheets are a bit crumpled, others have gotten damp and curl at the edges, but they have otherwise been preserved as faithfully as any historical artifact.

That is what the massive drawing is, though Corvo is loath to think of it as such. He puts Emily's last work on the wall beside the door, so that no one passing in the hall can happen to catch a glimpse of it. He keeps his door shut at all times in any case, and the drapes - acquired within a week of his arrival at the vineyard - are usually firmly closed as well. He does not want the image to fade.

(There are no lamps or candles in Corvo's room; he sits in the room at night, with only the moon or the stars for light, sometimes with the heart sometimes empty-handed, and stares at Emily's last gift.)

The second is a book tucked into the tiny shelf that one of the Whalers had given to Corvo when he'd looked at it for longer than a moment on the way back from a supply run to Cullero. He hadn't particularly coveted it - had actually been distracted by the faded stain, which reminded him of a similar piece from his childhood room in Karnaca - but Daud's men remain afraid of him now; their terror had only been stronger back when they first got here. They're willing to do just about anything to appease imagined slights. Corvo does not particularly care one way or the other for the shelf.

The book itself is a gift from Thomas a month or two after they'd moved in. It was purchased second hand. Corvo cannot be certain if it was found on a whim or if Thomas had consciously sought it out; the latter makes something in his chest ache, and so Corvo never asks, preferring to assume the former. The embossed letters have been worn down by age and countless hands, but the title of _The Royal Protector_ along the cracked spine is legible all the same. It is an earlier edition than the one currently in circulation, lacking the damning, _untrue_ passage about Jessamine's murder.

(It doesn't change the fact that Corvo _failed_ , of course; but he was not a murderer- not Jessamine's murderer, anyway.)

The final and most recent addition is a bone charm that sits beneath Corvo's pillow. It, too, is a gift; something much more precious than the petty things that Corvo had found for Daud. The assassin is bemused when Corvo tries to say as much, assuring Corvo that carving bone charms and runes had once been a hobby, something easy enough to pick up again.

The charm, which looks exactly the same as every other one that Corvo has come across - though Daud seems able to discern between them and determine their uses - helps Corvo sleep through the night. His nightmares about the top of Kingsparrow Island or his time in Coldridge are kept at bay, and the Outsider's nocturnal visits decrease in frequency as well.

(Daud has a similar charm for himself; it works well enough for both of them on the increasingly common occasions that Corvo spends the night.)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] no one can ever know](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6712294) by [Kess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kess/pseuds/Kess)




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